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Breaking Down Brees’s Record-Setting Touchdown

By Jonathan Bales October 9, 2012 3:49 pmOctober 9, 2012 3:49 pm

Jonathan Bales will analyze a big play each week.

In the first quarter of Sunday night’s Saints-Chargers game, Drew Brees became the first quarterback to throw at least one touchdown pass in 48 straight games, breaking the record of Johnny Unitas. The record is a reflection of Brees’s astounding consistency over the years. With the manner in which Brees approaches the game and the current pass-heavy nature of the N.F.L., there’s no reason to think Brees won’t lengthen the record well into the future.

Let’s break down the score that extended the streak. . .

On a third-and-6 at San Diego’s 40-yard line, the Saints lined up in a Shotgun 5 Wide Bunch formation with “11” personnel: one running back, one tight end and three receivers. Running back Darren Sproles and receiver Marques Colston were split out to the boundary, and Devery Henderson and another Saints receiver were paired up with tight end David Thomas to the wide side.

When the Saints lined up, safety Atari Bigby (circled below) was lined up 10 yards off the ball.

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Credit NFL.com

As Brees called out a dummy snap cadence, Bigby began to creep toward the line of scrimmage. He got as far as three yards off the ball, signaling to Brees that a blitz was on the way. When Brees made a check, Bigby backed up a couple of yards.

Photo

Credit NFL.com

The Chargers did indeed call a blitz. Above, I’ve marked the pass rushers with a green star and those defenders who stayed in coverage with a red star. You can see that, in addition to Bigby, the Chargers rushed four more players: two interior defensive linemen and both inside linebackers.

The concept was a pretty standard zone blitz. Like many zone blitzes, San Diego’s had a soft Cover 3 behind it (both cornerbacks and the free safety each with deep-third responsibility). Thus, by dropping traditional rushers into coverage and blitzing unconventional defenders, the Chargers could play a relatively safe coverage behind what they hoped Brees would think was an all-out blitz.

It didn’t work. Brees seemed to recognize the defense immediately, and the Chargers picked up the blitz wonderfully.

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Credit NFL.com

Brees immediately looked left after the snap, but I think he wanted to throw right the entire time. With the Chargers in Cover 3, Brees knew that he may still need to look off free safety Eric Weddle. With Weddle playing the deep middle, Brees couldn’t stare down the receiver he wanted to hit — Henderson on an out-and-up.

The design of the play was sharp, with Moore sitting down in the middle of the field. Even though Weddle had deep-middle responsibility, he could potentially move over to help on a deep route out of his zone if no one threatened him. When Brees looked left after the snap and Moore attacked Weddle in the middle of the field, Weddle couldn’t drift over to the sideline, basically turning cornerback Quentin Jammer’s coverage into man-on-man.

Photo

Credit NFL.com

With no deep help, Jammer shouldn’t have bitten up on Henderson’s stick to the outside. He did, however, and Henderson was able to beat him deep on the double move. Jammer was seven yards behind Henderson when the pass was caught. What appeared to be a piece-of-cake throw for Brees was really set up by his ability to read defenses as consistently as anyone in the league.

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